Norway gives oil firms too much say in Arctic - WWF
Date: 12-May-03
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle
The WWF showed Reuters copies of e-mails sent by the consultants compiling what is meant to be an independent report about oil and gas in the Barents Sea area and which include phrases like "Statoil thinks that" and "Hydro's comments are."
"The oil companies have been asked for their views before anyone else. The entire process could be coloured by the industry's views," Dag Nagoda of the WWF said.
WWF said it wrote to the Office of the Auditor General, the controlling agency for Norway's parliament, accusing the government of consulting oil companies before other groups from environmentalists to fishermen.
Nagoda said the WWF feared the government-commissioned report could get a pro-oil bias when it is published in June. Environmentalists fear that any oil spills could hit some of the world's biggest fish spawning grounds and bird colonies.
After the report is published, the government will formally ask for opinions from everyone from oil companies to ecologists. The centre-right government will then decide in late 2003 whether to allow oil and gas development in the Arctic.
Statoil and Norsk Hydro, Norway's biggest oil producers, have been lobbying for access to the Arctic which could be a rich new area to shore up output because new finds are becoming scarce further south.
The Oil and Energy Ministry said that the report would be independent of the interests of oil companies. The e-mail records were recently released after environmentalists raised suspicions of pro-oil bias last month.
INDIVIDUALS, NOT COMPANIES
The Ministry said that employees of companies from ExxonMobil to Statoil had been asked for their views, but only as individuals who have special expertise and not as representatives of their companies.
"The oil employees staff are not speaking on behalf of the firms," ministry spokeswoman Sissel Edvardsen told Reuters. "They are talking as individuals - the meaning doesn't change if an e-mail refers to them by name or by where they work."
The WWF believes that Norway will go ahead and start oil and gas exploration in the Barents Sea area but wants it kept away from spawning grounds for cod and capelin or cliffs that are home to giant colonies of guillemots or puffins.
"Oil and gas exploration is not something we will applaud but it's something that's coming," said Andreas Tveteraas, WWF Marine Conservation Officer. "We want to make sure that the sensitive areas are protected as much as possible."
In the Barents Sea, Norway has so far given the go-ahead only for Statoil's Snoehvit liquefied natural gas field, which is due to come on stream in 2006. Other exploration has been put on hold while the studies are made.
WWF says that the Goliath oilfield, discovered by Agip off north Norway, is likely to be among the most controversial because it is close to land and so any spills could pollute a long stretch of coastline.
